End the circus and speak to Assange, urge Swedish MPs

Swedish MPs are losing patience with the legal impasse over the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has spent the past 19 months in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.

They have urged prosecutors investigating sexual assault allegations against him to travel to London and question him at the embassy. The MPs said investigators should accept that Mr Assange would not go to Sweden voluntarily. It is the first sign of political unrest in Sweden over the saga.

The stand-off between Mr Assange, 42, and Marianne Ny, the prosecutor, began in June 2012 when he took refuge at the embassy, claiming that Sweden would eventually send him for trial in the US for leaking secret documents.